Chapitre 99: Second Trial
The scene shifts to the third night when Ayanokouji and the others arrive at the Sanctuary.
Everyone returns to the ruins, but Beatrice does not accompany them today.
"Emilia, are you okay?" Ayanokouji turns to see Emilia looking slightly dazed.
Dark circles hang under her eyes, which are dull and lifeless. It seems like she didn't get any rest last night.
"I see you're not in good shape today."
As Ayanokouji closely observes her, he can sense that something is different.
"I'm fine! There's nothing wrong with me!" Emilia quickly says with a smile. "I will still work hard to participate in today's trial, and I will never disappoint Ayanokouji-sama!"
There is a slight uncertainty in her words, as if she is trying to convince herself.
"I'm starting! I will never disappoint Ayanokouji-sama!"
Emilia quickly walks towards the ruins.
Ayanokouji's eyes do not follow her for long. Even if Emilia is a bit off right now, the plan cannot be stopped. He turns to look at Otto, who seems to be ready for anything.
"I wonder if Her Highness the Princess will cry again this time." Garfiel mutters, holding his head, unable to believe in Emilia.
But at that moment, a powerful explosion suddenly erupts in the distance, heading toward the village.
"What happened?!" Garfiel is shocked by the sudden explosion.
He instinctively looks at Ayanokouji, wondering if it was the other's fault, but Ayanokouji's expression remains unchanged, without any flaws.
"What happened?" Otto pretends to panic.
All of this was orchestrated by Ayanokouji.
"I don't know, but I'm worried something happened in the village." Ayanokouji immediately says. "Otto, go back and check the situation. Garfiel, stay here with me."
Otto immediately nods and quickly goes to prepare the dragon carriage. Garfiel frowns slightly, and his eyes fix on Ayanokouji, filled with dissatisfaction, before saying, "No, I'll go with him! I'll leave the trial situation to you."
With that, he jumps into the dragon carriage and shouts at Otto, "Hurry up, driver, don't waste time!"
"Hey, I have a name, you know!"
"Stop talking nonsense, or I'll kill you!"
"Okay, okay…"
As the dragon carriage slowly disappears from Ayanokouji's sight, he nods.
All of this was part of his plan, designed to lure Garfiel away from the mountain.
Ayanokouji first instructed Otto to place several fire magic stones in the village, then timed the approach and return, and asked Beatrice, who was in the village, to detonate them, creating a large explosion to draw attention.
The reason for leaving Beatrice in the village was not only to have her detonate the fire magic stones but also to ensure that everyone currently in front of the ruins couldn't leave using any means other than the dragon carriage.
Even though Beatrice herself could use magic to create a large movement, Ayanokouji didn't want her to waste too much magical power, so he chose to use the fire magic stones instead.
But that alone was not enough. Ayanokouji also took Garfiel's character into consideration.
He knew that Garfiel didn't fully trust him. If he asked him to return to the village, Garfiel would most likely become suspicious and stay. Therefore, Ayanokouji chose the opposite approach and verbally requested him to stay, knowing that Garfiel's suspicious nature would likely lead him to choose to return and check.
Not only that, but Ayanokouji also instructed Alma and the other Ryuzu clones to keep their actions secret.
Even though he learned yesterday that Garfiel also has the authority of the Witch of Greed because he participated in the trial, and all the Ryuzus follow his orders, Garfiel didn't know that Ayanokouji was also a servant of the Witch of Greed, so he never imagined that the Ryuzu clones would hide anything from him.
This information gap was Ayanokouji's advantage.
On the way, Otto would also try his best to stall for time.
Once this was over, simply explaining that "Beatrice was in a bad mood and used magic to vent her emotions" would be enough to handle Garfiel.
After sending Garfiel away, Ayanokouji could enter the trial site without any hindrance. He didn't just want to challenge the second trial, but also to gain more information from Echidna.
Given Echidna's character, she would never allow him to participate in the third trial. The qualification to challenge the trial was granted by Echidna, and it would be easy for her to take it back.
Ayanokouji himself wasn't restricted by the Sanctuary's barrier, so he could naturally release Emilia, leave here, and choose to support Felt instead.
However, he had already publicly supported Emilia. If he switched his support for the throne candidate now, it would impact his image, and the power that Emilia had accumulated would be handed over to Felt, abandoning much of the foundation he had built previously.
Even though Emilia was almost a novice in politics, Felt was even worse.
The most important thing was that if Ayanokouji chose another candidate for the throne, he would have to ensure that Emilia would never leave the Sanctuary. If one day she really broke through the trial and left, it would definitely cause problems.
If Ayanokouji really wanted to leave the Sanctuary, he might have to completely eliminate Emilia.
However, this would contradict Roswaal's philosophy. The other party would certainly oppose him. And even though Puck had not appeared so far, he could not rule out the possibility that it was still in the crystal on Emilia's chest.
So giving up on Emilia and leaving the Sanctuary was the last option. For now, Ayanokouji's priority was to help her pass the trial.
He quickly entered the ruins, and his vision blurred again.
"Although it's a bit special, her intestines are also very ordinary."
His vision cleared, and the pungent smell of blood filled his nose. Then a black figure appeared in front of him.
Bowel Hunter Elsa.
The bodies of Emilia, Felt, and Rom were lying on the ground, and Ayanokouji's own corpse was not far away.
'Is this the first death scene?' Ayanokouji looked at the scene in front of him without expression, watching Elsa split open his body, but there was no turmoil in his heart.
Perhaps in that timeline, he had already died, but it would not have any impact on him now.
Ayanokouji speculated in his mind that in this present-themed trial, Echidna should have read his memories and calculated different possible plots based on them.
For Emilia, if human character and choices could be measured, the unpredictable future could be reduced to limited possibilities.
The scene changed again, from the slums to the forest in the Roswaal territory.
The same corpses belonged to him and Emilia, but this time Ram and Roswaal were next to them. It seemed like the time he first encountered Petelgeuse, and they could not avoid death.
"It seems you are unqualified. You are truly lazy, lazy, and lazy." Petelgeuse, inhabiting his fingers, cried hysterically, controlling the Unseen Hand to lift Emilia's body off the ground.
"Put down my daughter, you bastard." At this moment, an angry voice came from the air—it was Puck.
Puck's body gradually enlarged, and in an instant, it transformed into a lion-like form more than ten meters tall. The temperature around them dropped rapidly, and countless Witch cultists were frozen into ice statues in an instant, then shattered into pieces.
Even Petelgeuse could only fight Puck in this form for a few rounds, and all the surrounding Witch cultists turned to dust.
The surrounding forest also turned into a frozen land in an instant, and thick snow fell from the sky.
"My daughter is dead, Lia is gone, this world is meaningless, so by the contract, I will begin to destroy the world..." Puck muttered to himself.
❀❀❀
"Is this the content of the contract between the Half-Elf and the Great Spirit?"
In the alleys of the royal capital, Elsa, who was hiding, looked at the illusion in the sky with a smile.
"If I kill her, I might be killed by this Great Spirit. That's excellent."
And everyone in the royal capital was delighted because of this.
"Is she crazy to sign a contract with such a powerful spirit?"
"Destroy the world... It seems like only Reinhard can stop this?"
"Sure enough, we can't let such a dangerous person be selected as king."
❰❱SKY SCREEN❰❱
Ayanokouji slightly narrowed his eyes, realizing something strange.
In his memory, he didn't know that Puck had this side. It was impossible to deduce this scene from any clues.
There was only one possibility—that Echidna knew the secrets about Puck. Was the reason Puck couldn't appear related to this?
And with Emilia's character, it was impossible for her to sign such a contract with Puck.
Although Puck had previously shown very strong power, it was still far from the level that could destroy the world, and the Puck in the image had no time limit.
Was Puck normally restricted by something?
This made Ayanokouji ponder deeply.
And the scene changed again. The image of himself was engulfed in the mist of the White Whale, and the entire world forgot his existence.
Emilia and the others' memories were filled in as if nothing was missing, but without Ayanokouji's presence, the strength they had recently built up quickly crumbled, like a loose pile of sand.
And some memories couldn't be filled in.
For instance, Beatrice.
"Why am I here... Betty left the Forbidden Library to find that person, but why can't Betty remember that person? There was no such person?!"
In the royal capital's palace, Beatrice stared out the window, tears streaming uncontrollably, her eyes filled with despair and pain.
"Please... please... please, someone kill Betty."
Seeing the scene before him, Ayanokouji's eyebrows furrowed slightly.
Soon, various images flooded in front of him, all of which 'might' not have been possible.
Then, a demonic whisper sounded in Ayanokouji's ears: "Look at the things that shouldn't exist now."
It was like countless voices overlaid together, echoing in his ears.
However, Ayanokouji's expression didn't change at all.
It's unclear how much time passed, but all the voices finally subsided, and he returned to the present ruins.
"Am I back? Is the trial over?" Ayanokouji whispered to himself, but he realized that Emilia was no longer beside him, "Did Emilia leave? No, that's not right."
He touched the ground. The ground beneath him was very cold, with no warmth at all, as if Emilia hadn't been lying there just now, and the footprints she left when she entered had disappeared.
This isn't destruction, perhaps the trial is still ongoing.
A small figure slowly walked toward him. Ayanokouji lowered his center of gravity, ready to evade any possible attack and counterattack.
"You've been working very hard." The figure said slowly.
But Ayanokouji didn't let his guard down at all, because in front of him was a completely unfamiliar face.
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